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The Everygirl’s product selections are curated by the editorial team. If you buy something through our links, we may earn an affiliate commission, at no cost to you. We only recommend products we genuinely love.
When I was in high school, every night I would lay in bed, flip open my iPad mini, and spend my last waking hours watching beauty YouTube. Before I knew it, Jaclyn Hill had me applying Makeup Geek’s Peach Smoothie eyeshadow into my crease with a fluffy brush every time I left the house and Tati Westbrook somehow convinced me to use Tarte’s Timeless Blurring Primer while I still had the smooth skin of a 15 year old. I’ve been susceptible to the internet convincing me to buy a beauty product for nearly half of my life, and with that curse has come a vanity drawer that’s the equivalent of a product graveyard and the wisdom that virality doesn’t always equal quality.
My pre-teen self would be thrilled to know that my beauty obsession put me on a pipeline to a career that includes testing more products than I could have conceivably dreamed up at the time. While some viral products really do deserve the hype, I also have a routine full of under-the-radar products I can’t live without that I’ve never seen mentioned on my social media feeds even once.
From the tanning mist that has a permanent residence on my top shelf to the skin tint my mom added to her cart the second she saw it on my face, these are the completely un-viral beauty products that have reached holy grail status in my book.
From 2018 through 2020, I fried my hair to a crisp with a blow-dry brush that my hair stylist eventually made me swear off of due to breakage. While I missed the smoothing effects the brush gave, I figured that all blow-dry brushes were too damaging for my fine hair, until I got introduced to ghd’s Duet Blowdry™ from their new Futurescape collection. The limited-edition, lilac brush uses technology that converts energy from airflow to actively heat the brush’s plates, meaning it can take your hair from wet to dry without the need for extreme heat. With the help of sensors that monitor the device’s temperature 400 times per second, the Duet Blowdry™ uses consistent, low heat to give me the silky-smooth, frizz-free blowout effect I crave, without the heat damage that comes with similar brushes.
If I had to estimate the number of bottles of this tanning water I’ve gone through in my life, my guess would be upwards of 20. A couple of spritzes of this before bed makes me wake up with a subtle *kiss* of tan that makes me look healthy and alive, but never orange. I apply it every other night about an hour after I finish my nighttime skincare routine, and find that it gives me a foolproof, even wash of color that I know I can rely on. I’ve gotten all of my friends hooked on it, and everyone who tries it tells me that can’t believe more people aren’t talking about it.
I would consider myself something of a mascara snob, and while I’d tried some 2025 mascara launches I’ve really liked, I hadn’t found one I loved until I tried this. I generally don’t love a tubing mascara, but Kulfi’s gives my lashes both the volume and length I want while lasting all day without flaking or smudging. My lashes are on the straighter side and tend to fall quite quickly after applying mascara, with this one, they stay curled for the majority of the day.
When I entered my mid-20s, I assumed I had graduated from my days of acne—so imagine my surprise when the absolute worst acne of my entire life began popping up right around my 28th birthday. While my dermatologist helped me get control of any active cysts, once I was through the thick of it, I was left with dark spots that didn’t seem to fade no matter what I did. I ended up incorporating this serum into my routine—which features a 5% blend of azelaic, glycolic, lactic, and tranexamic acid—and after a few weeks, noticed a massive reduction in the post-blemish pigmentation I was battling. It was also developed to be safe on all skin types and tones (Fitzpatrick 2-6), so it’s safe for anyone dealing with dark spots or uneven texture that they’re hoping to correct.
I have fine, thin hair everywhere on my body—and unfortunately, that includes my eyebrows. Since my individual eyebrow hairs are so thin, any heavy waxes or pomades usually end up weighing them down, but not Benefit’s Fluff Up Brow Wax. This formula is on the dryer side, so as it adheres to my brows, it doesn’t make them look too wet or slick. Instead, it does as it promises and gives me fluffed-up brows that stay that way until I wash my face at night. I love this product so much that I’ve bought it in both the clear and tinted version so I have one handy for any mood me and my brows are in.
While Dedcool’s cult-favorite Xtra Milk fragrance is served to me on an endless loop on my For You page (deservedly so, might I add), I’ve been counting down the days until recently released Mochi Milk gets its day in the sun. While I don’t generally gravitate toward sweet fragrances, Mochi Milk combines notes of each nectar and marshmallow with sandalwood, amber, and white musk for a skin-like depth that I can’t get enough of.
InnBeauty Project’s Extreme Cream Moisturizer has been a staple in my routine since it launched, and after weeks of use, I can report that the new Extreme Cream Eye Firming & Contouring Eye Cream is just as good. With the help of peptides, bio-retinol, and fermented amino acids, this eye cream takes my struggling, barely-slept-six-hours under eyes and visibly decreases puffiness while firming my fine lines. While I’ve noticed many hard-hitting eye creams create a base that makes my makeup pill and separate, I haven’t had that problem with Extreme Cream Eye.
You know the #BeautyTok videos of influencers trying a new complexion product and audibly gasping? That’s what actually happened to me the first time I put Danessa Myrick’s Yummy Skin Smoothing Skin Tint on my face. This product somehow manages to make my dry skin look dewy and hydrated (but not greasy) while simultaneously blurring my pores. Just last weekend, my mom asked me what I had on my face, and proceeded to pick up her phone and order it on the spot.
Despite having extremely dry skin, setting my face is still a must, and because of my skin’s constant state of struggle, I’m pretty picky about the powders that come across my desk. This one, however, is one of the best formulas I’ve ever tried, and I’ve never seen a single person talking about it. It has a matte finish, so I opt to apply a sheer dusting to just my T-zone rather than all over the face, but it gives my skin an instant, filter-like effect that has me reaching for it every single day.
Madeline Galassi is the Senior Fashion & Beauty Editor at The Everygirl, where she leads the site’s fashion and beauty coverage, including trend reports, shopping roundups, and celebrity style. A trend expert with an eye for the latest must-have products and up-and-coming brands, Madeline is always on the pulse of what’s next and making sure readers stay in the know.
This post contains a sponsored inclusion of GHD but all of the opinions within are those of The Everygirl editorial board.
Products included in graphic linked within the article. Feature graphic images credited to: Kulfi, EM Cosmetics, ghd, DedCool, Lionpose
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